2015 recap: how I earned 84,000 American Airlines miles

I flew to London for the first time in 2015 and that sparked in interest in traveling. Since July 2015, I have earned 84,000 frequent flier miles by strategically traveling and planning my purchases. 84,000 miles is enough for two off-season, round-trip tickets to either Hawaii or Europe on American Airlines or one of its partner airlines. Thus, it was a good year for miles!

12,000 miles came from the American Airlines shopping portal. You can earn miles for clicking on the portal before you begin your online shopping. Periodically the portal offers bonus miles which I was able to take advantage of this year.

The remainder came from credit card purchases on the above-mentioned Citi Advantage credit card.

ORD on Christmas Eve.

Conclusion

While I haven’t decided how the miles will be spent (which is the most exciting part), I did want to share that a little strategic planning can go a long way. You can check out my Step 1: Strategy page for more information. These strategies should be fairly accessible because even with minimal traveling and no credit card sign up bonus, I would have acquired over 20,000 miles. In two years that’s about enough to redeem for a trip to Europe (assuming the miles are not devalued).